EVENING. People.

Couple Charged In Attack Against 9-year-old Black Boy

January 19, 1996

A white couple from New Zion, S.C., is charged with mob violence for allegedly tying a 9-year-old black boy to a tree, shooting a gun past his head, punching and kicking him and tying a belt around his neck until he passed out.

The couple's son, a schoolmate of the boy, helped his parents in the Jan. 5 attack, which left the victim with bruises, swelling and scratches, authorities said.

Benjamin and Betty Mims each posted a $5,000 bond Wednesday and were released from the Clarendon County jail. The charge against the couple is technically called second-degree lynching, which in South Carolina is a general mob-violence accusation that carries a sentence of up to 20 years.

According to a sheriff's report, the boy was at the Mims' home playing with the couple's son, 9, and their 13-year-old niece. Betty Mims got angry, told the boy to get out of her house and pushed him onto the porch.

In the yard the children pushed the black boy into the cab of Mims' truck, then told Mims the boy was stealing from the truck, sheriff's Lt. Jackie Blackwell said.

In a statement to police, the boy said Mims shook a crowbar at him and shouted racial remarks at him.

The family then forced the boy into the woods behind their home and tied him to a tree, the sheriff's report said.

Benjamin Mims, 62, fired one shot past the boy's head, then gave the shotgun to his son, who fired a second shot, Blackwell said. Mims also hit the boy on the foot with a crowbar, and his son and niece punched him in the chest and abdomen, Blackwell said.

Betty Mims then held a belt around the boy's neck until he passed out, the boy told police.

The boy eventually was freed and was told not to tell anyone what happened or his family would be killed and his house burned, the sheriff's department said.

Emergency room doctors said the boy's injuries were consistent with his account.